Animafest Is Big on Japan

Watchers of the always surprising world of Japanese animated shorts should book their tickets for Animafest Zagreb, taking place June 3-8 in the Croatian capital. The festival organizers have revealed that the Land of the Rising Sun will be well represented with 10 films set to screen in competition at the Oscar-qualifying event.

The Japanese selections for the Grand Competition are abstract artist Mirai Mizue’s Wonder and Yoriko Mizushiri’s Futon. The Student Competition category will feature Yukie Nakauchi’s Celebration and Chorale, Sawako Kabuki’s Ketsujiru Juke (trust us, you don’t want to know the translation), Kim Hak-hyun’s Maze King, Saki Muramoto’s It’s Time for Supper and Yutaro Kubo’s 00:08 — Nakauchi and Kabuki completed their films while at Tama Art University, while Kim, Muramoto and Kubo are Tokyo University of the Arts kids. In the Commissioned Films category will be Katachi/Shape by Kijek/Adamski, Monotonous Purgatory by Saori Shiroki and The Hyuga Episode of Kojiki by Oscar nominee Koji Yamamura.

Three additional Tokyo U films will screen in the out-of-competition Student Panorama program: Asami Ike’s Usalullaby, Yutaro Kubo’s (certainly a young filmmaker to watch!) Kicking Rocks and Moe Koyano’s My Dear Flesh. More information on the festival can be found at www.animafest.hr/en.

Thanks to The Asahi Shimbun for translating the story from Anime Anime Japan Ltd.